Barbara Honigmann

Barbara Honigmann (born 12 February 1949) is a German author, artist and theater director.

Life and career Honigmann is the daughter of Jewish emigrant parents, who returned to East Berlin in 1947 after a period of exile in Great Britain. Her parents were Litzi Friedmann (1910–1991; Alice Kohlmann), an Austrian Communist who was the first wife of Kim Philby, a member of the Cambridge Five, and Georg Honigmann, PhD (1903–1984). Her mother was born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, and worked in film dubbing in her later years. Her father was born in Wiesbaden, Germany and was the chief editor of the Berliner Zeitung while also being a filmmaker. The couple divorced in 1954.

According to Emily Jeremiah from The Institute of Modern Languages Research, "Honigmann’s texts are also paradigmatic of post-exile writings by German-Jewish authors. In addition, they offer examples of literary reactions to the demise of the GDR by its decamped intellectuals, and represent the articulations of a new generation of women writers"

Life in the theater Honigmann worked for many years in theater as a playwright and dramatist. In addition to working in Brandenburg, she also worked in the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. Some of the plays she wrote were later changed into radio plays.

Both of her plays and radio plays have elements of fairy tales or historical lives weaved into them. One of Honigmann's radio plays was awarded with "radio play of the month" by the South German Radio Station.

Awards

1986 – Aspekte-Literaturpreis 1992 – 1994 – 1996 – Ehrengabe der Deutschen Schillerstiftung 2000 – Kleist Prize 2001 – Jeanette-Schocken-Preis 2004 – Solothurner Literaturpreis 2004 – Koret Jewish Book Award 2011 – Max Frisch Prize 2016: Ten-week London scholarship from the German Literature Fund, as Writer-in-Residence at Queen Mary University of London (spring 2017) 2023 – Goethe Prize 2024 – Schiller Memorial Prize

Works

Das singende, springende Löweneckerchen, Berlin 1979 Der Schneider von Ulm, Berlin 1981 Don Juan, Berlin 1981 Roman von einem Kinde, Darmstadt [u.a.] 1986 Eine Liebe aus nichts, Reinbek: Rowohlt 1991 Soharas Reise, Berlin 1996 Am Sonntag spielt der Rabbi Fußball, Heidelberg: Wunderhorn 1998 Damals, dann und danach, München: Hanser 1999 Alles, alles Liebe!, Munich: dtv 2000 Ein Kapitel aus meinem Leben, Munich: Hanser 2004 Das Gesicht wiederfinden. Über Schreiben, Schriftsteller und Judentum, Munich: Hanser 2006 & Blick übers Tal. Zu Fotos von Arnold Zwahlen Basel/Weil am Rhein: Engeler 2007, Das überirdische Licht: Rückkehr nach New York, Munich: Hanser 2008 & Bilder von A., Munich: Hanser 2011 & Chronik meiner Straße, Munich: Hanser 2015 &

Translations Lev Ustinov: Die Holz-Eisenbahn, Berlin 1979 (with Nelly Drechsler) Anna Akhmatova: Vor den Fenstern Frost, Berlin 1988 (with Fritz Mierau)